Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Down 0.7% – Time to Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price fell 0.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $416.10 and last traded at $421.30. 24,613,885 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 77,547,750 shares. The stock had previously closed at $424.07.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Roth Capital raised shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.48.

Tesla Stock Down 1.1 %

The company has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 115.09, a PEG ratio of 8.60 and a beta of 2.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $393.38 and a 200 day moving average of $291.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,868,508. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at $391,164,540.60. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751 over the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Aurora Private Wealth Inc. increased its holdings in Tesla by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Private Wealth Inc. now owns 2,210 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $892,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 9,361 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,780,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 322,599 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $130,278,000 after purchasing an additional 24,877 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Tesla by 201.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,521,552 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $614,464,000 after purchasing an additional 1,017,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at $2,902,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Tesla

Tesla, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Automotive, and Energy Generation and Storage. The Automotive segment offers electric vehicles, as well as sells automotive regulatory credits; and non-warranty after-sales vehicle, used vehicles, body shop and parts, supercharging, retail merchandise, and vehicle insurance services.